| Summary: | Abstract Background There is no clear time point for the onset of depression and anxiety in Parkinson's disease (PD), and their atypical physical symptoms often overlap with other nonmotor symptoms. Autonomic dysfunction usually appears earlier than motor symptoms, seriously impairing activities of daily living (ADL), even quality of life. Whether autonomic dysfunction can affect depression and anxiety in PD patients through ADL is still unclear. Methods We conducted three progressive autoregressive mediation models to evaluate whether ADL may mediate the association between autonomic symptom burden, where the mediation chain with autonomic function as an independent variable, ADL as a mediating variable, and anxiety and depression as dependent variables. The ADL of PD patients were measured by the Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson's disease‐Autonomic (SCOPA‐AUT) and Modified Schwab and England ADL scale, respectively, and the status of depression and anxiety were measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Results There were 338 PD patients, including 220 males and 118 females. Demographic information, including age, gender, and education level, were not correlated with the depression and anxiety. Model III had the smallest AIC (AIC = 12,669.89), and the cross‐lagged relations were not statistically significant, so we selected Model II as the optimal model. In Model II, longitudinal autoregressive mediated effect and longitudinal mediated effect of autonomic dysfunction affecting anxiety and depression through ADL were not statistically significant, suggesting longitudinal changes of autonomic dysfunction were independent of anxiety and depression through ADL. Contemporaneous mediated effects of autonomic dysfunction affecting anxiety and depression through ADL were statistically significant, suggesting contemporaneous autonomic dysfunction may contribute to anxiety and depression through ADL. Conclusions Targeted prevention and intervention measures for autonomic dysfunction and ADL should be taken to preserve and improve self‐perceived life satisfaction in the clinical practice and preventive health care of PD.
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